1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for separating microparticles, and particularly to a method of detecting leukemia by examining the resistance and electromagnetic repulsion of a suspension of red blood cells under the influence of an alternating current field.
2. Description of the Related Art
Leukemia is a disease that involves cancer of the blood cells or bone marrow. There are several forms of leukemia, most of which are characterized by the overproliferation of white blood cells, which are often abnormal or immature. Although the white blood cells are primarily affected, since leukemia also affects the bone marrow, red blood cells are also affected by the disease. Many forms of leukemia are amenable to treatment, and some forms may be completely cured. As with all forms of cancer, the key to effective treatment is early detection. Sadly, the American Cancer Society has estimated that one in every five cases of leukemia has not been diagnosed. There continues to be a need for methods of detecting the presence of leukemia.
Various techniques exist in the prior art to detect bio-fluid microparticles (MPs) such as blood. Indeed, extensive work has been presented to study the electrical behavior of microparticles (MPs) suspended through bio fluid. The prior art on nano-particles drug delivery consider liquids with “Newtonian-behavior” if they contain suspending MPs. However, this is not the case in most medical situations and can't be applied on most biological human-fluids such as blood. In fact, this vital fluid, i.e., blood is a very complex heterogeneous bio-fluid. It contains flexible and very deformable micro-cells, platelets, proteins, NPs suspended through plasma and therefore blood should not be considered as simple liquid. In particular, for blood flow in arterioles and venules, the particulate nature of the blood should be taken into account when thinking about drug delivery processes. The existence of the “cell free layer” and nano-particle-interaction drastically affects the binding rates and dispersions processes thereby influencing targeted delivery-efficiency. Electrical reactance measurements have been used to detect the presence of minute concentrations of bacteria at frequencies of about one mega Hertz. Also, previous research efforts have been directed to investigate the presence of AC-Faradic polarization using various metallic electrodes. However, electrical measurements of bio-fluid such as blood that comprises both MPs and NPs suspended still pose great challenges.
Thus, a method of detecting leukemia solving the aforementioned problems is desired.